plate 10: south africa

Howzit? As a self-confessed word nerd, something caught my eye on my journey to South Africa this week – South Africans seem to love the letter “B”. Some of their favourite foods include: boerewors – a coiled sausage; biltong - salty, air-dried meat (similar to beef jerky); braai – the South African barbecue; and bobotie – a curried meat dish baked with an egg topping. Oh, and one of the country’s rugby union players is Bakkies Botha.

Before you get too excited, no, I didn’t cook all of these – bobotie was my choice because it appears to be the South African home cook’s treasure. Apparently it was declared the South African national dish by the United Nation’s Women’s Organisation in the ‘50s.

I didn’t know what to expect with bobotie, but I was intrigued by its medley of spicy, savoury and sweet ingredients. The flavours of the dish reflect the history of South Africa, in particular the Dutch settlers and their Indonesian slaves.

When you type bobotie into Google, you’ll find dozens of different recipes - some being spicier than sweet and vice versa - but for the recipe I chose, lamb mince is cooked with curry powder, lemon juice and zest, mango chutney, sultanas, toasted almonds and milk-soaked bread. Many tastes, but one word – YUM. The traditional side is yellow rice (the yellow comes from ground turmeric). Because of bobotie’s curry flavour, AJ and I thought it would be a great pie filling, too. If you want to try that, don't make the egg top and don't bake the bobotie, just cool the mixture after cooking it on the stovetop then pop it into pastry cases.

While I didn’t cook any of the other famous South African dishes, I stumbled across a packet of biltong when grocery shopping today. We snacked on it while the bobotie was baking and wondered why we couldn’t stop. A glance at the packet revealed the culprit: flavour enhancer 621 (aka MSG). If you don’t want to eat too much of this nasty artificial flavouring, here’s how to make your own biltong. And to enjoy it in true South African style, serve it with another "B" word - "beer" - while watching the footy.
   
I really hope you love the bobotie as much as I did. x